Guidelines for medicinal cannabis applications are under review as access looks set to broaden

Associate Minister of Health Peter Dunne regularly updates Prime Minister John Key on medicinal cannabis research and trial progress being made overseas.

OPINION: It’s high time all the huffing and puffing about the Government not doing anything to broaden access to medicinal cannabis had some facts thrown in the mix.

In the past fortnight two notable Kiwis, namely the late Martin Crowe, and Sir Paul Holmes, have hit the headlines for their use of medicinal cannabis.

In the case of Crowe it was an old friend who revealed he’d used the drug for pain relief in his dying days and for Holmes, his wife Lady Deborah Holmes, confirmed he too had taken it to ease his struggle with prostate cancer.

Neither chose to highlight their use while they were still alive – but to be honest who can blame them given how well known they were and the frenzy that